James M. Mead PinnacleCare Chief Executive Officer

James M. Mead is the CEO of PinnacleCare, after having served for two years on the Board of Directors for the Baltimore-based health advisory service and 20-plus years as the President and CEO of Capital BlueCross (Harrisburg, PA), where he served as the organization’s Vice Chairman. From 1988 to 2004, Mr. Mead served on the board of directors of the national BlueCross BlueShield Association, sitting on many national committees and chairing its Plan Performance and Financial Standards Committee. Mr. Mead continues to serve on the boards of directors of several health care companies and is a former Member of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia serving as its Chairman from 1994 to 1996.

Additionally, Mr. Mead is the Managing Director of JM Mead, LLC, established in 2004 to provide advisory services in health economics and healthcare financing to private equity firms, investment banking firms and emerging companies. He is a Venture Partner with Radius Ventures, LLC (New York, NY), a private equity firm focused on leading-edge health services and life sciences firms.

“In my twenty years as CEO of Capital BlueCross, the most common request I had from another executive was ‘I know someone struggling with a serious medical issue. Where is the best place for them to go for treatment?’ At PinnacleCare, we focus on answering those questions and connecting people with the best resources and treatment options available.”

— James M. Mead

The firm is now allowing its entire adviser force to refer clients to PinnacleCare, which also created a new elder-care assessment… Many advisers feel that dealing with elder-care issues isn’t their responsibility. But as clients age, “you’re going to be doing this whether you want to or not.”

In a time of serious illness, these advocates can help research new treatments that doctors may not know a lot about, cut through the medical bureaucracy, and perhaps help frame medical decisions more objectively than stressed out patients and their family members. Advocates are not just there to help you heal but also to keep you healthy.

— Anne Tergesen, “Your Guide to the Medical Maze”

Consider hiring a private patient advocate… It could help get you the care you need.

— Judy Foreman, “For when a doctor and a nurse just aren’t enough”

“Pinnacle provided me with a name and with research that said, ‘here’s how other people are going it, and here’s who has the most long-term survivors, and here are their stories.’ What I got from that was hope. Not a bad return on investment.”

— Gregory Taggart, “Deluxe Health Care”

“I always thought the medical staff would return phone calls, answer questions and discuss treatment plans and options. I was wrong.” So the family turned to…PinnacleCare for help. Within one day, a doctor on the company’s staff reviewed her mother’s medical records and set up a conference call with a neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins and a neurologist from Rush University Medical Center, who agreed to take on the case. “We needed someone on our side.”